Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is bigger in every way. The scope of the story, city, and characters has all been blown out, leaving the player with a wonderful sandbox to explore and live in.


Playing as Spider-Man is fun, the updated city and traversal methods are an ever expanding and evolving joy to move through and utilize. The speed of movement is ratcheted up and the web wings were a great addition for an additional means of movement through the city, it just never gets old swinging through the city. The much talked about zero load fast travel is cool but I almost never used it because even a cross map swing only takes a few minutes and never loses its appeal.

Combat is more fluid but feels a little less varied than the previous releases. There are a couple more abilities to play around with but less gadgets to deploy, Enemy variety and uniqueness takes a small dip here also, the action sequences do become repetitive, especially in the venom consumed final act of the game. It is still wonderfully fluid and kinetic though, punches and moves have great impact and resonance.

I found the story to be the weakest element of the game. It is a perfectly serviceable Venom/Kraven story, but it doesn't give a lot of successful twists and turns and is for the most part completely predictable. I found it to be noticeably lacking behind the previous 2 installments.